Brad Battin and Jess Wilson could have led a next-generation Liberal Party, but neither wanted to play second fiddle, leaving the party riven by the same hatreds that consumed John Pesutto.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.There was a moment a little over a week ago, albeit a fleeting one, when it looked as though the warring tribes of the Victorian Liberal Party were prepared to put aside their mutual loathing and mistrust and unite behind a stable, next-generation leadership to take them to the 2026 state election.
Wilson and Rowswell had earlier met with Pesutto, in the parliamentary office of Michael O’Brien, to tell their boss the tied vote had left his two-year leadership critically wounded and emboldened his party room enemies.“It wasn’t an ultimatum,” Rowswell says. “It was a conversation with a bloke to say this is our read on things, it is best for you to consider your position and work out how this can be dealt with in a way which provides you with maximum dignity and respect.
Through the haze of scented steam, Battin and Riordan detected a whiff of condescension. Instinctively, they dug in their heels.Battin, a former cop from Berwick who ran a Baker’s Delight, is not your A-type Victorian Liberal leader. He left school at 15, went to university later in life and didn’t develop the inner-Melbourne party contacts that open the doors to staffing jobs for senators or advising MPs.
It was Pesutto who, as he sat alone in his parliamentary office with wife Betty minutes after Federal Court Justice David O’Callaghan handed down a damning finding against him and ordered he pay Deeming $300,000 in damages, failed to appreciate that, if his leadership was to survive, he needed to show less fight and more contrition and humility towards the woman he had defamed.Advertisement
Finally, it was Pesutto who, two days later, belatedly realised his leadership was careering towards a brick wall and threw both principle and any remaining passengers out of the car. Senator Sarah Henderson, a political mentor to Battin appalled at how Deeming was treated by the party, called Paterson, a close friend of Wilson, and urged her to accept the offer of deputy leader.
On Sunday morning, Wilson called Battin to accept his offer of deputy leader. He said he would think about it and never called back.
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